Naomi Duerr, Reno’s City Council member representing Ward 2, on Wednesday, was elected to serve as vice mayor for the following year. Council members must elect a vice mayor during the first council meeting each November.
As vice mayor, Duerr will act as mayor and perform mayoral duties whenever Mayor Hillary Schieve is absent. If the office were to become vacant, Duerr would assume the duties as interim mayor until an election could be held.
At-large Council member Devon Reese has been vice mayor for the past year and nominated Duerr for the seat.
“It’s a thankless and difficult job, but there is no one I would trust more with this opportunity and this responsibility than Ms. Duerr,” Reese said.
Council member Jenny Brekhus said that while she would like to support Duerr, she blames her for “too much confusion” during ward redistricting, which Brekhus said she believes will cause issues heading into the 2024 election cycle.
“The way the wards were done in redistricting was so disturbing to me, and she was the architect of it,” Brekhus said. “In many ways. And in that way, I can’t support the elevation of her at this time.”
Council member Meghan Ebert said she also took issue with Duerr’s nomination as she is up for election this year. “I know it’s just Jenny and I not up for election, but I do take issue with someone being up for election being vice mayor.”
The vote passed 4-2, with Brekhus and Ebert voting no.
Council votes to sunset 1,000 Homes in 120 Days program
Council members voted to sunset the 1,000 Homes in 120 Days program, which allowed developers a five-year deferral on building permit and sewer connection fees.
Council members approved the program in 2019 in response to the significant lack of housing in the city at the time. The purpose of deferring fees was to lower upfront development costs and get housing units onto the market faster. 
Mayor Hillary Schieve championed the initial adoption of the program, and Reese called it “visionary” and said he was thankful for the mayor’s leadership during the project’s inception.
“This came at a time … when we were incredibly concerned, and are still incredibly concerned, about the lack of supply,” Schieve said. “It takes a lot of work and a lot of time to get a shovel in the ground. There was no subsidy to developers; it was something they could pay on the back end.”
Schieve said she had heard negative feedback from the community about the program being offered to all builders rather than only affordable housing builders.
“I never said [it would be all affordable housing]; it was housing of all types because we know supply and demand is the biggest issue when we’re seeing a housing crisis, and we need projects of all types,” she said.
According to Angela Fuss, assistant director of development services, changing market and economic conditions from the COVID-10 pandemic have resulted in many development projects initially included in the program being “slow to move forward” or stalled entirely.
Since its inception, 33 development projects, which include almost 5,000 new residential units, have been accepted into the program. Only a fraction of the proposed units—123—are now occupied. Another 1,035 units are under construction, and over 600 units are in the building permit review process.
Developers still interested in taking advantage of the fee deferrals have until Dec. 31, 2023, to participate in the program.
In other items
Council member Kathleen Taylor donated $500 of her council discretionary funds to support Noah’s Animal House Foundation, an organization dedicated to eliminating the denial of pets at women’s shelters. Domestic abuse survivors are often deterred from seeking help because they are afraid or unwilling to leave their pets behind.
The Reno Police Department was awarded a grant of $380,176 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to increase enforcement of commercial vehicles, target unsafe driving of commercial vehicles, and conduct inspections.
Council members approved a consultant agreement with Brown and Caldwell for design services related to the Reno-Stead Water Reclamation Facility (RSWRF) Flow Shave Capacity Increase Project for $434,000. The RSWRF is permitted to treat two million gallons per day of raw sewage. A recent expansion doubled the plant’s treatment capacity, but it’s still limited to discharging two million gallons per day. While the Advanced Purified Water Facility Project at American Flat is under construction, the council elected as an interim measure to shave flow from the RSWRP to the Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility, and staff recommended increasing pumping. Council approved the consulting agreement to provide professional engineering design services for the project.
Council members approved for city staff to negotiate a contract with the Community Foundation of Northern Nevada (CFNN) to manage the city’s Affordable Housing Charitable Donation Fund. Six development projects need to pay an affordable housing charitable donation, per the conditions of their approval, at the time of building permit issuance. Total fee contributions are estimated at $4.2 million. The city expects some funds to start coming in within the next 12-24 months, and staff recommended the CFNN to manage the funds as the organization has a “long history of managing public/private partnerships for charitable purposes.”
Council approved a reimbursement agreement with DPRTA Stead LLC, also known as Dermody, for $853,535 and approval of the At Grade Crossing Agreement with Union Pacific Railroad for a new public crossing of Union Pacific Railroad tracks at the extension of Moya Boulevard within the Reno-Stead Airport Business Park Development.
